12AP Eng. Lit. & Comp.
Mr. Klein
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
AUTHOR · James Joyce
GENRE · Bildungsroman
· 1907–1915; Trieste, Dublin, Zurich
· 1916
POINT OF VIEW · Although most of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is in the third person, the point of
view is Stephen's: as Stephen develops as a person, the language and perspective of the narration develop
with him.
SETTING (TIME) · 1882–1903
SETTING (PLACE) · Primarily Dublin and the surrounding area
TIME AND PLACE WRITTEN
DATE OF FIRST PUBLICATION
· Stephen struggles to decide whether he should be loyal to his family, his
church, his nation, or his vocation as an artist.
MAJOR CONFLICT
Author’s Biography – James Joyce was born on February 2, 1882, in the town of Rathgar,
near Dublin, Ireland. He was the oldest of ten children born to a well-meaning but financially
inept father and a solemn, pious mother. Joyce's parents managed to scrape together enough
money to send their talented son to the Clongowes Wood College, a prestigious boarding
school, and then to Belvedere College, where Joyce excelled as an actor and writer. Later, he
attended University College in Dublin, where he became increasingly committed to language
and literature as a champion of Modernism. In 1902, Joyce left the university and moved to
Paris, but briefly returned to Ireland in 1903 upon the death of his mother.
Published in serial form in 1914–1915, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man draws on many
details from Joyce's early life. The novel's protagonist, Stephen Dedalus, is in many ways
Joyce's fictional double—Joyce had even published stories under the pseudonym "Stephen
Daedalus" before writing the novel. Many of the scenes in the novel are fictional, but some of its
most powerful moments are autobiographical: both the Christmas dinner scene and Stephen's
first sexual experience with the Dublin prostitute closely resemble actual events in Joyce's life.
In addition to drawing heavily on Joyce's personal life, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
also makes a number of references to the politics and religion of early-twentieth-century
Ireland. When Joyce was growing up, Ireland had been under British rule since the sixteenth
century, and tensions between Ireland and Britain had been especially high since the potato
blight of 1845. In addition to political strife, there was considerable religious tension: the
majority of Irish, including the Joyces, were Catholics, and strongly favored Irish
independence. The Protestant minority, on the other hand, mostly wished to remain united
with Britain.
Around the time Joyce was born, the Irish nationalist Charles Stewart Parnell was
spearheading the movement for Irish independence. In 1890, however, Parnell's longstanding
affair with a married woman was exposed, leading the Catholic Church to condemn him and
causing many of his former followers to turn against him. Many Irish nationalists blamed
Parnell's death, which occurred only a year later, on the Catholic Church. Indeed, we see these
strong opinions about Parnell surface in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man during an
emotional Christmas dinner argument among members of the Dedalus family. By 1900, the
Irish people felt largely united in demanding freedom from British rule. In A Portrait of the Artist
as a Young Man, the young Stephen's friends at University College frequently confront him with
political questions about this struggle between Ireland and England.
Stream of Consciousness
Today, Joyce is celebrated as one of the great literary pioneers of the twentieth century. He was
one of the first writers to make extensive and convincing use of stream of consciousness, a
stylistic form in which written prose seeks to represent the characters' stream of inner
thoughts and perceptions rather than render these characters from an objective, external
perspective. This technique, used in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man mostly during the
opening sections and in Chapter 5, sometimes makes for difficult reading. With effort, however,
the seemingly jumbled perceptions of stream of consciousness can crystallize into a coherent
and sophisticated portrayal of a character's experience.
By George, I think I’ve got it!
Another stylistic technique for which Joyce is noted is the epiphany, a moment in which a
character makes a sudden, profound realization—whether prompted by an external object or a
voice from within—that creates a change in his or her perception of the world. Joyce uses
epiphany most notably in Dubliners, but A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man is full of these
sudden moments of spiritual revelation as well. Joyce truly believed that an epiphany can
dramatically alter the human spirit in a matter of just a few seconds.
Motifs – Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop
and inform the text's major themes.
Music – Music, especially singing, appears repeatedly throughout A Portrait of the Artist.
Stephen's appreciation of music is closely tied to his love for the sounds of language. As a very
young child, he turns Dante's threats into a song, "[A]pologise, pull out his eyes, pull out his
eyes, apologise." Singing is more than just language, however—it is language transformed by
vibrant humanity.
Flight – Stephen Dedalus's very name embodies the idea of flight. Stephen's namesake,
Daedalus, is a figure from Greek mythology, a renowned craftsman who designs the famed
Labyrinth of Crete for King Minos. Minos keeps Daedalus and his son Icarus imprisoned on
Crete, but Daedalus makes plans to escape by using feathers, twine, and wax to fashion a set
of wings for himself and his son. Daedalus escapes successfully, but Icarus flies too high. The
sun's heat melts the wax holding Icarus's wings together, and he plummets to his death.
In the context of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, we can see Stephen as representative
of both Daedalus and Icarus, as Stephen's father also has the last name of Dedalus. With this
mythological reference, Joyce implies that Stephen must always balance his desire to flee
Ireland with the danger of overestimating his own abilities—the intellectual equivalent of
Icarus's flight.
Prayers, Secular Songs, and Latin Phrases – We can often tell Stephen's state of mind by
looking at the fragments of prayers, songs, and Latin phrases that Joyce inserts into the text.
When Stephen is a schoolboy, Joyce includes childish, sincere prayers that mirror the manner
in which a child might devoutly believe in the church, even without understanding the meaning
of its religious doctrine. When Stephen prays in church despite the fact that he has committed
a mortal sin, Joyce transcribes a long passage of the Latin prayer, but it is clear that Stephen
merely speaks the words without believing them. Then, when Stephen is at the university,
Latin is used as a joke—his friends translate colloquial phrases like "peace over the whole
bloody globe" into Latin because they find the academic sound of the translation amusing. This
jocular use of Latin mocks both the young men's education and the stern, serious manner in
which Latin is used in the church.
Symbols – Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract ideas or
concepts.
Green and Maroon – Stephen associates the colors green and maroon with his governess,
Dante, and with two leaders of the Irish resistance, Charles Parnell and Michael Davitt. In a
dream after Parnell's death, Stephen sees Dante dressed in green and maroon as the Irish
people mourn their fallen leader. This vision indicates that Stephen associates the two colors
with the way Irish politics are played out among the members of his own family.
Emma – Emma appears only in glimpses throughout most of Stephen's young life, and he
never gets to know her as a person. Instead, she becomes a symbol of pure love, untainted by
sexuality or reality. Stephen worships Emma as the ideal of feminine purity. When he goes
through his devoutly religious phase, he imagines his reward for his piety as a union with
Emma in heaven. It is only later, when he is at the university, that we finally see a real
conversation between Stephen and Emma. Stephen's diary entry regarding this conversation
portrays Emma as a real, friendly, and somewhat ordinary girl, but certainly not the goddess
Stephen earlier makes her out to be.
Questions for Discussion
Compare and contrast Stephen with some of the other boys and young men with whom he
associates. How is he different from them? How does he feel about being different?
How does the setting of the novel affect the characters and the plot?
Character List
Stephen Dedalus - The main character of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Stephen
goes through long phases of hedonism and deep religiosity. Stephen is essentially Joyce's alter
ego, and many of the events of Stephen's life mirror events from Joyce's own youth.
Simon Dedalus - Stephen's father, an impoverished former medical student with a strong
sense of Irish patriotism. Sentimental about his past, Simon Dedalus frequently reminisces
about his youth.
Mary Dedalus - Stephen's mother and Simon Dedalus's wife. Mary is very religious, and
argues with her son about attending religious services.
The Dedalus Children - Though his siblings do not play a major role in the novel, Stephen
has several brothers and sisters, including Maurice, Katey, Maggie, and Boody.
Emma Clery - Stephen's beloved, the young girl to whom he is fiercely attracted over the
course of many years. Stephen constructs Emma as an ideal of femininity, even though he
does not know her well.
Mr. John Casey - Simon Dedalus's friend, who attends the Christmas dinner at which young
Stephen is allowed to sit with the adults for the first time. Like Simon, Mr. Casey is a staunch
believer in Irish nationalism, and at the dinner he argues with Dante over the fate of Parnell.
Charles Stewart Parnell - An Irish political leader who is not an actual character in the novel,
but whose death influences many of its characters. Parnell had powerfully led the Irish
National Party until he was condemned for having an affair with a married woman.
Dante (Mrs. Riordan) - The extremely fervent and piously Catholic governess of the Dedalus
children. Dante, whose real name is Mrs. Riordan, becomes involved in a long and unpleasant
argument with Mr. Casey over the fate of Parnell during Christmas dinner.
Uncle Charles - Stephen's lively great uncle. Charles lives with Stephen's family.
Eileen Vance - A young girl who lives near Stephen when he is a young boy. When Stephen
tells Dante that he wants to marry Eileen, Dante is enraged because Eileen is a Protestant.
Father Conmee - The rector at Clongowes Wood College, where Stephen attends school.
Father Dolan - The cruel prefect of studies at Clongowes.
Wells - The bully at Clongowes. Wells taunts Stephen for kissing his mother before he goes to
bed, and pushes Stephen into a filthy cesspool, causing Stephen to catch a bad fever.
Athy - A friendly boy whom Stephen meets in the infirmary at Clongowes. Athy likes Stephen
Dedalus because they both have unusual names.
Brother Michael - The kindly brother who tends to Stephen and Athy in the Clongowes
infirmary after Wells pushes Stephen into the cesspool.
Fleming - One of Stephen's friends at Clongowes.
Father Arnall - Stephen's stern Latin teacher at Clongowes. Later, when Stephen is at
Belvedere College, Father Arnall delivers a series of lectures on death and hell that have a
profound influence on Stephen.
Mike Flynn - A friend of Simon Dedalus's who tries, with little success, to train Stephen to be
a runner during their summer at Blackrock.
Aubrey Mills Blackrock.
A young boy with whom Stephen plays imaginary adventure games at
Vincent Heron - A rival of Stephen's at Belvedere.
Boland and Nash - Two schoolmates of Stephen's at Belvedere, who taunt and bully him.
Cranly - Stephen's best friend at the university, in whom he confides his thoughts and
feelings.
Davin - Another of Stephen's friends at the university. Davin comes from the Irish provinces
and has a simple, solid nature. Stephen admires his talent for athletics, but disagrees with his
unquestioning Irish patriotism, which Davin encourages Stephen to adopt.
Lynch - Another of Stephen's friends at the university, a coarse and often unpleasantly dry
young man.
McCann - A fiercely political student at the university who tries to convince Stephen to be
more concerned with politics.
Temple - A young man at the university who openly admires Stephen's keen independence
and tries to copy his ideas and sentiments.
Dean of Studies - A Jesuit priest at University College.
Johnny Cashman - A friend of Simon Dedalus.